Storm in the Village

I had suspected that I would love the Fairacre novels as much as Miss Read's other series, Thrush Green. However, these novels are even better! In this third volume in the series, the village of Fairacre braces itself to oppose a proposed housing estate, while Miss Read's assistant, Miss Jackson, puts her job and reputation at risk over a womanizing man. How will it all end? Unlike Thrush Green, when the end is preordained, in Storm in the Village, there is a real sense of suspense -- particularly with regard to the lovesick and foolish Miss Jackson. While still cozy, they portray a more realistic view of village life in the 1950s, complete with adultery, a privileged harridan, wife and child abuse, unwed mothers, irascible figures, and a silly overwrought young woman intent on throwing it all away on a scalawag. The spinster schoolteacher, Miss Read, provides a sharp albeit somewhat sentimental social commentary on the joys and foibles of village life. Who knew? Fairace is even more enjoyable than Thrush Green, which was sometimes much too idealized. I've already ordered the next Fairacre Novel, Miss Clare Remembers. I can hardly wait.

After a long, complex day, settling down in a comfortable armchair with a cup of tea and a Miss Read book is one of the best ways to soothe the body and mind. All of her books take us to a make-believe town where life is simple enough, but not so simple we grow bored. Her characters are amusing and all problems are resolved by the end of the book. So relaxing!

Miss Read wrote about the virtues of voluntary simplicity long before it became a movement or seminar topic. Her Fairacre books use a single school teacher in a small English village as an observer of a richly realized provincial life. One is tempted to wax on about the influence of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens in her work, or to somehow disparage Jan Karon, who has created a Readesque world from a North Carolina milieu. No doubt one day folks will write their masters' theses discussing how Ms. Read and Muriel Spark headed for many of the same places, and yet reached such different destinations. But really, all that folderol would be missing the point completely. Miss Read writes warm, sentimental gentle English provincial satire, which is really all you need to know.The Fairacre characters are ordinary folks, burnished up a bit, as novels tend to do, so that they are entirely believable in their own universe, but not necessarily a part of our own "real world". Miss Read is not a pollyanna, nor does she set out to teach us some social lesson. Instead, she sets out for the reader a solid meal of good characterization, gentle wit, and a solid dessert of warm-hearted sentiment.Storm in the Village deals with a dilemma all too familiar to anyone from a small town--the town church is damaged, and money must be found to repair it. The book exists in a world of happy endings and wonderful good fortune, but the straightforward plotting is beside the point. We do not live in suspense about the ending--we just enjoy with pleasure how our characters make the ending happen. Miss Read is not out to convert us to move to Fairacre, or even to cause us to create our own Fairacres. But she does offer us a chance to peek through the gauze into a middle-class life whose virtues and foibles we recognize and appreciate. Perhaps someone out there now is toiling away on rescuing our suburban stories from the smug modernisms of the latter-day aesthete. In the meantime, though, Miss Read shows us that the ordinary life, well told and brushed up a bit about the edges, can make a darn good read. Storm in the Village is not going to make you pause and ponder life's inner contradictions. But it may allow you to sigh with relief on a rainy Saturday afternoon. What could be wrong with that?